Florencia en el Amazonas

Marcela Fuentes-Berain mujer de letras, maestra y emprendedora incansable de ideas para la pantalla. Es licenciada en Filosofía por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y en Cuba en la Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisón de San Antonio de los Baños donde estudió Guionismo, donde fue asistente de curso y colaboradora cercana por más de una década de Gabriel García Márquez. La también discípula de Syd Field, durante el taller que impartió en México, formó parte del taller permanente de dramaturgia del maestro Hugo Argüelles.

Su facultad para la escritura le ha permitido transitar en los terrenos de la ópera, la poesía, el ensayo, resaltando su enfoque profesional en el campo del guión para cine y televisión, actividad que actualmente practica.

Es miembro activo de distintas comunidades cinematográficas iberoamericanas, de entre las que destacan el Sundance Institute, el foro de coproducción del Festival de Cine Iberoamericano de Huelva y Pro-imágenes de Colombia, entre otras.

Joshua Borths is a stage director, writer, educator, and arts administrator with over twelve years of experience in the opera industry. Borths has directed dozens of professional productions, given over five hundred public lectures, and written more than eight children's operas that have introduced hundreds of thousands of young audiences to opera across the country.

Originally from Cincinnati, OH, Borths is currently the Resident Scholar of Virginia Opera and a member of the stage directing staff of Des Moines Metro Opera. Borths comes to Virginia after having served as the Director of Opera & Musical Theater and Professor of Music History at Capital University in Columbus, OH and as Director of Education and Resident Stage Director at Arizona Opera.

At Capital University, Borths produced and managed all of the opera and musical theatre programming while also teaching the music history curriculum. Additionally, Borths created a joint Resident Artist Program with Opera Columbus, creating innovative programming for both institutions. With Arizona Opera, Borths more than doubled the reach and scope of department through innovative programming and cultural engagement. By the end of Borths' tenure, the Department of Education reached 70,000 people annually.

Past favorites include directing productions of The Falling and the Rising and Beauty and the Beast for Des Moines Metro Opera; Rusalka, Florencia en el Amazonas, and The Barber of Seville for Arizona Opera; Hansel and Gretel and The Tragedy of Carmen for Opera Memphis; Madame Butterfly at Pensacola Opera, La Clemenza di Tito for the University of Maryland, Suor Angelica for Crested Butte Music Festival, and The Elixir of Love for Opera Las Vegas. As a stage director of musical theatre, Borths has directed Parade; Camelot; Kiss Me, Kate; and The Music Man.

Borths has also directed gala performances featuring Frederica von Stade and Joyce DiDonato, and staged the southeastern premieres of Soldier Songs and La Hija de Rappaccini.

As an assistant director, Borths has worked with many opera companies including Arizona Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Festival della Valle d'Itria. Additionally, Borths has hosted podcasts, written acclaimed surtitle translations of popular operas, and publicly interviewed many illustrious artists including Jake Heggie, Gregory Spears, David T. Little, Jonathan Dove, novelist Thomas Mallon, and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Jane Smiley.

As an educator, Borths has taught at Shenandoah University, been a Visiting Professor at the Crane School of Music (SUNY Potsdam), directed Maryland Opera Studio, and was a guest panelist at the Opera America Conference. Borths collaborated with TED Ed on their first opera resources and was featured in Opera News for his innovative approach to opera education.

Borths holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan and a masters degree in Opera Production from Florida State University.

Hailed as "a singer to watch" (The Washington Post) with a voice that is “powerful and projecting" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Alexandra Loutsion continues to be recognized for her passionate performances and vocal versatility as a rising star on the operatic stage. This season, she adds three new roles to her repertoire: the title role of Puccini’s Tosca with Central City Opera, Princess Turandot in Puccini’s Turandot with Pittsburgh Opera, and the Foreign Princess in Dvorak's Rusalka with Arizona Opera. She also makes her debuts with Palm Beach Opera as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic singing the title role in Puccini's Tosca. She was recently heard as Florencia in Daniel Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas with Arizona Opera, and made her Wolf Trap Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to great acclaim. She debuted with North Carolina Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Dayton Opera as Gertrude in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, as well as returning to Pittsburgh Opera as Almera in a new production of Nico Muhly's Dark Sisters. She also covered the Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti.

Ms. Loutsion spent two summers as an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera, most recently to cover the role of Leonore in Fidelio conducted by Harry Bicket. She also covered the title role in Puccini's Tosca, the leading role of Anna in Rossini’s Maometto II, and was heard in various scenes including Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, Elvira in Verdi's Ernani, and Gerhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre at the annual Apprentice Showcase. Ms. Loutsion also spent two seasons as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera where she was seen as Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo, Gertrude and the Witch in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, and Annina in Verdi's La traviata. As an Apprentice Artist with Central City Opera, she was heard as the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and as Melissa in Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, as well as Minerva in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, La Dame Elegante in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and as Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen. Other recent performances have included the title role in Madama Butterfly with Opera on the James, Anna Kennedy in Maria Stuarda with Washington Concert Opera, the Foreign Woman and Magda cover in Menotti’s The Consul with Opera Santa Barbara, Sie in Karl Hartmann's Wachsfiguren Kabinett with the Aspen Music Festival, and the leading role of Isabella in Wagner's Das Liebesverbot as part of the Ring Festival LA.

Ms. Loutsion recently represented the United States as a quarterfinalist in the Francisco Viñas International Singing Contest in Barcelona, Spain. She was also a winner of the Metropolitan National Council District Auditions and Long Beach Mozart Competition, as well as a finalist in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, McCammon Voice Competition and Dallas Opera Competition. She is the recipient of the Catherine Filene Shouse Education Fund Career Grant from Wolf Trap Opera, Santa Fe Opera Donald Gramm Memorial Award and Anna Case MacKay Award, Shoshana Foundation Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the Central City Opera John Moriarty Award, and the Aspen Music Festival New Horizon Fellowship. She holds a Master of Music in Vocal Arts from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College.

A 2017 recipient of a top prize from the Sullivan Foundation, Joseph Lattanzi established himself as a singer to watch with his portrayal of Hawkins Fuller in the world premiere of Greg Spears’ Fellow Travelers with Cincinnati Opera, followed by further performances for his debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago, in New York at the PROTOTYPE Festival, and with Arizona Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Praise for Lattanzi's performances included The New York Times saying “Joseph Lattanzi was splendid as Hawk, his buttery baritone luxuriant and robust.” and Opera News described him as a “confident, handsome presence, and a resonant baritone suggesting wells of feeling that the character might prefer to leave untapped.” In the 2022/23 Season, Lattanzi once again joined The Metropolitan Opera for their productions of Peter Grimes and Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk before returning to the role he created in Fellow Travelers with Virginia Opera. Lattanzi also made a debut with the Sacramento Choral Society as the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana.

In the 2021/22 Season, Lattanzi continued his relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, covering the role of Orpheus in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice and joining their production of Madame Butterfly. Additionally, Lattanzi returned to his hometown in the title role in The Barber of Seville with the Atlanta Opera, where he was praised for his “stellar” voice and his “top notch” acting by the Atlanta Arts Review. Lattanzi capped off the season debuting the role of Escamillo in Utah Festival Opera’s production of Carmen.

Recent career highlights include his return to Cincinnati Opera as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Silvio in Pagliacci with Atlanta Opera, Dandini in La cenerentola with Virginia Opera, and the title role in Don Giovanni with the Jacksonville Symphony. A regular at The Metropolitan Opera since the 2018/19 Season, Lattanzi has been on the roster for productions of Der Rosenkavalier, Kat’a Kabanvova, Marnie, Madame Butterfly, and The Barber of Seville. Lattanzi has also maintained a strong relationship with Arizona Opera, where he was a member of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio from 2015 until 2017. During Lattanzi's time with the company, he was heard in the title role of Don Giovanni, as Dandini, Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas, and was featured in the company’s Sapphire Celebration with Frederica von Stade. Additional performances included Moralès and Dancaïre in Carmen, Yamadori in Madame Butterfly, and as the Gamekeeper in Rusalka. Lattanzi also appears regularly with Seattle Opera, most recently as the Steward in their filmed production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight.

On the concert stage, Lattanzi was heard in a celebration of the music of Leonard Bernstein with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and in the coast of West Side Story at Grand Tetons Music Festival under the baton of Donald Runnicles. Lattanzi has appeared with Jake Heggie in OPERA America’s Creators in Concert series, previewing Fellow Travelers at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, and in Carmina Burana with the Reno Philharmonic and at the Christ (Crystal) Cathedral, and with the Chicago Sinfonietta.

The Georgia native has studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). In addition to two summers at the Merola Opera Program, Lattanzi has participated in programs at the Brevard Music Center and the Chautauqua Institute Voice Program.

Praised by Opera Today for “pure, clear tones” and lauded by the Arizona Republic for “purity and vivacious charm,” young soprano Sarah Tucker is demanding attention for her captivating vocal timbre and engaging stage presence. Tucker was a National Semifinalist in the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and recently completed her second year as a member of the Arizona Opera Studio. She was recently heard as Nelly Nettleton in Arizona Opera’s innovative, multi-lingual production of Arizona Lady, in which she not only sang, but also “danced like a flapper” (Opera Today).

The 2019/20 Season included several company debuts: as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Pensacola Opera, Mimi in La bohème with Gulfshore Opera, and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Opera in the Heights. This season, she returns to Gulfshore Opera for a reprise of her Mimi in La bohème.

The 2018/19 Season for Tucker included debuts with The Dallas Opera as Frasquita in Carmen, San Diego Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, and Intermountain Opera Bozeman as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. In the 2017/18 Season, Tucker made her Opera Philadelphia debut where she reprised First Memory in Lembit Beecher’s War Stories, a role which she first premiered with Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City. Additionally, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto with Opera Connecticut and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. The 2016/17 Season brought her debut with Utah Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, her return to Texas State University as a guest soloist in Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and covering the title role in The Golden Cockerel at Santa Fe Opera. Her 2015/16 Season included several more role debuts with Arizona Opera including Micaëla in Carmen, Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni as well as her San Francisco Opera debut as Jano in Jenufa.

Passionate about uncommon works as well as traditional operatic repertoire, Tucker collaborated with conductor Scott Terrell in Lexington Philharmonic’s 2015 Holiday Series, which included the rarely performed “Song of the Angel” by John Tavener. The piece’s haunting duet for soprano and solo violin requires great musical and vocal versatility, which was “stunningly realized by Tucker” (Tedrin Blair Lindsay, Contributing Music Critic, www.kentucky.com). She was also the star of a cutting-edge workshop of composer Clint Borzoni’s The Copper Queen in which she performed the role of Julia Lowell as part of Arizona Opera’s “Arizona Spark” initiative.

Other recent appearances include Norina in Don Pasquale with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with both Lexington Philharmonic and the Christ Cathedral (Crystal Cathedral) in Orange County, CA. Additional past credits include the roles of Contessa Ceprano and Paggio in Rigoletto, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Arizona Opera, for which she received high acclaim. In 2014, Tucker performed Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica and Contessa Ceprano in Rigoletto with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the role of Tina in Flight with Opera Fayetteville.

In addition to her success in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Tucker has received numerous awards in several nationwide vocal competitions. She was a finalist in the Fritz & Levinia Jensen Foundation Voice Competition, in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition she was a finalist and winner of the Encouragement Award, and she competed in the semifinals of the Dallas Opera Guild and Fort Worth Opera McCammon Vocal Competitions. Tucker is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College‐Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Andrew Penning, originally from St. Paul, MN, is a tenor in the Arizona Opera Studio. During the 2015-16 season he returned to the Arizona Opera Studio to make leading role debuts as Arcadio (Florencia en el Amazonas) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). He will also sing the supporting roles of Remendado (Carmen), Chester Kingsbury (Arizona Lady), and Bardolfo (Falstaff). Assignments from the 2014-15 season with Arizona Opera included Triquet (Eugene Onegin), Borsa (Rigoletto), and 1st Armored Man/Second Priest (Die Zauberflöte).

Mr. Penning has been a Young Artist with some of the most prestigious companies and festivals in the United States. In the summer of 2015 he will cover the role of Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) at Des Moines Metro Opera. At the Glimmerglass Festival he performed the roles of Delmonte (King for a Day) and Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos). With Utah Opera as The Ballad Singer in Of Mice and Men, Opera News said, “cast standouts included … Andrew Penning as the Ballad Singer, whose sweet lyric tenor conveyed the workers’ conscience.” As a Fellow at the 2011 Tanglewood Music Festival, he sang the Second Tenor in performances of Stravinsky’s Renardwith the Mark Morris Dance Group and gave recital performances featuring works by Richard Strauss, Alberto Ginastera and Ralph Vaughn Williams’ chamber song cycle On Wenlock Edge. At CCM Spoleto in the summer of 2010, he performed the role of the Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia). As a young artist at Seagle Music Colony in upstate New York, he performed the roles of The Governor and Vanderdendur (Candide).

In addition to his work in opera, Mr. Penning is also an active concert soloist. In performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Tucson Symphony of 2014, the Arizona Daily Star said “Penning…was ashow-stealer, singing at times with richly nuanced vibrato and at other times with such ringing clarity that you just couldn’t take your eyes off him.” Other concert repertoire includes: Arvo Pärt’s Passio, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, J.S. Bach’s

Cantata 12, Haydn’s Grosse Orgelmesse in E Flat, and Bruckner’s Te Deum.

Mr. Penning completed his Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Cincinnati:College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and his Bachelor of Music at Lawrence University.

www.andrewpenning.com

Mezzo soprano Adriana Zabala enjoys a vibrant career that spans performance and recording of new opera, song, and concert works, as well beloved operatic roles, traditional concert and oratorio works, German Lieder, French Mélodie, and American and Spanish song.

As the title character in the American Premiere of Dove's The Adventures of Pinocchio at the Minnesota Opera, Adriana Zabala was praised by The Wall Street Journal as showing "tremendous stamina and boy-like flair." The New York Times hailed her as "a vivid, fearless presence," and theL.A. Times as "extraordinary" for her portrayal of the Barbarian Girl in the American premiere of Philip Glass' Waiting for the Barbarians with the Austin Lyric Opera. 

In addition to an extensive repertoire of traditional works, Ms. Zabala is a champion of new music: in opera, concert, and song. For her recording with composer and pianist Gregg Kallor,Exhilaration: Dickinson and Yeats Songs, Opera News Online says, "Kallor has found a wonderful exponent in Adriana Zabala, a gifted, agile mezzo-soprano. Kallor knows how to make these words sing, and Zabala gives perfect flight to them. Singing with uncommon clarity and natural beauty, she seems to be deep inside both the poems and Kallor's musical realizations." The duo has performed these songs at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, on the Carnegie Room Series in Nyack, NY, in the Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, and on the Salzburg International Chamber Music Series in Austria. With baritone Matthew Worth, she will give the premiere of Kallor's new song cycle at New York City's Subculture in spring of 2015.

Operatically, in addition to the two American premieres listed above, Ms. Zabala created roles in John Musto's Volpone and Douglas Cuomo's Doubt. She will sing the title role in the world premiere of Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein's new opera, Sister Carrie, with The Florentine Opera in 2016, this season creates the role of Rosie Chaney in the world premiere of Kevin Puts' and Mark Campbell's The Manchurian Candidate with Minnesota Opera, and sings the role of Joanna in the revival of Carly Simon's Romulus Hunt with Nashville Opera. In new concert works, Ms. Zabala sings the soloist role in the James Whitbourn's Anne Frank oratorio Annelies, which she has done with Oratorio Society of Minnesota and will repeat at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She will be a soloist in the upcoming world premiere of Jeffrey Van's Reaping the Whirlwind with the Susquehanna Valley Chorale, and is a soloist on the recent Naxos DVD release of Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein's Parables.

In the classic repertoire, Ms. Zabala has recently appeared as soloist in Beethoven's 9th Symphonyand the Mozart Requiem with The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, in Messiah with both the Jacksonville and Phoenix Symphonies, in Mahler's 3rd Symphony with Quad Cities Symphony and Maestro Mark Russell Smith, and in Rossini's Stabat Mater with the Berkshire Choral Festival. This season she will return to the Jacksonville Symphony for the Mozart Requiem, perform and record the Requiem with the Florida Bach Festival Society, join Boston's Bay Back Chorale and Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, sing Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer with the Oregon Mozart Players, and join Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra as the alto soloist in Mahler's Second Symphony, "Auferstehung."

In the last few seasons, engagements include the world premiere of Douglas Cuomo and John Patrick Shanley's opera Doubt, for which Ms. Zabala created the role of Sister James, the role of Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare with The Florentine Opera, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with both The Florentine Opera and the Jacksonville Symphony, the role of Dorabella with Opera Saratoga, Annina in Der Rosenkavalier with The Minnesota Orchestra, recitalist with theSalzburg International Chamber Music Concerts, soloist with The Jerusalem Symphony, and the role of Isabella Linton in Wuthering Heights with Minnesota Opera.

Ms. Zabala has been seen on the stages of The Seattle Opera, The Minnesota Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Wolf Trap Opera, the Wildwood Festival, The Syracuse Opera, the Arizona Opera, the Atlanta Opera, the Lyric Opera of San Antonio, Opera Carolina, the Lake George Opera, Opera Pacific, and Utah Opera, among others. Her most frequently performed traditional roles are Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola, and Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. Other career highlights include many appearances with the New York Festival of Song, soloist at the Caramoor International Music Festival with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, alto soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Bryn Terfel asElijah, recitals in the Barns at Wolf Trap, the The Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, The Dallas Museum of Art, Ventford Hall in Lenox, MA, and in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ms.Zabala made her European debut under the late Maestro Lorin Maazel as Mercedes in Carmen at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain and returned for the same role and as the Page inSalome with Maestro Zubin Mehta.

Adriana Zabala was raised in Miami, Caracas, Venezuela, and Lake Jackson, Texas. She earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University, was a Fulbright Scholar in Salzburg, Austria, studying German Lieder at the Mozarteum and earned her masters degree at theUniversity of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She was an Artist Resident for two seasons with the Minnesota Opera, was a Young Artist with the Seattle Opera, and is an alumna of the apprentice programs at the Berkshire Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Wolf Trap Opera Company.

Professor Zabala is a proud member of the voice faculty at the University of Minnesota, where in addition to her thriving studio, she teaches graduate vocal literature, administrates a program of collaboration between the Minnesota Opera and the University of Minnesota, teaches a Freshman Seminar called Shakespeare in Film and Music, and a May Session Global Seminar, Vive les Arts!, in Paris. Ms. Zabala is managed by Ana de Archuleta at ADA Artist Management & Representation in New York City. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters.